Club126UK
Fiat 126 Chat => Fiat 126 Mechanical Problem Solving => Topic started by: Bambino126 on May 26, 2015, 08:34:22 AM
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I've just bought a new leaf spring for my 126, and it says on it that you must remember to keep it well oiled to retain its bouncyness in future.
How do you do this?
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I've never tended to do this personally. The leaves have a nylon type of material sandwiched been each leaf which gives a lot of smooth movement with minimal wear. If you want to oil or grease them then you'll have to take it all apart and grease them one by one before refitting them all again
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What a pain - blow that then. Easier and cheaper to just replace it when it's eventually knackered. I bet nobody on here spends their weekends regreasing their leaf spring leaves! When I read the label I thought it just maybe meant give it a spray of WD40 from time to time or something?
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Just use a spray grease that should sort it
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The only other way would be to remove the spring and lay it on its side and brush/spray oil on it and leave it over night in the hope that it soaks down inbetween the leaves. To be honest it'll be a while before it wears out :D
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Ok I was being over cautious then - sounds like one of those jobs people don't worry much about. If it gets creaky I'll oil it but otherwise forget it.
I might just use that excuse next time the missus wants me to do some tedious job for her... Sorry I'm far too busy I've got to urgently go and oil my leaf spring leaves... comes back 3 hours later smelling of beer :D
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Oiling it would trap dirt and sand much easier, I wouldn't do it.
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I`ve greased mine up when I took it apart for lowering and it works a treat. I should really wrap it with some tape though as suggested by someone on here to prevent the dirt getting to it.
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Rolls Royce use to encase there leaf springs in a leather sheaf and then pumped grease in ;D
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http://club126uk.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=8178.msg59653#msg59653
Stumbled on this thread of the same topic.
The conclusion is to use "water pump" grease and "Denso" tape
Having not come across them myself before, what are the benefits of these two products over say multipurpose grease and duct tape?
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Just did this job at the weekend.
It wasn't that hard really. Once you've removed the leaf spring from the car you have to undo 2 metal clasps one at each end and a 17mm nut in the middle then it all comes apart.
Despite only being on the car for about 2 months from new, quite a bit of rust had started and wear was evident in the nylon layers between the leaves from running dry and un-lubricated.
So I then sanded down each and every metal leaf with a palm sander with a fine grit paper until all the surface rust had gone and it was completely smooth and frictionless and then applied a very generous helping of this "waterpump grease". I hadn't come across this stuff before but its more like a wax than a grease its so thick. In fact it resembles ear wax! Next took the nylon layers and gave them a very good scrub till they were clean and then greased them too. Then put it all back together and greased all outer metal surfaces to prevent rust.
When you tighten the main nut back up all your excess grease squidges out, and then finally I wrapped the entire leaf spring tightly in this "Denso" tape, which is like a thick fabric again soaked in its own water repellent grease.
Here is the leaf spring just before refitting it to the car.
(http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f101/tashman_/Mobile%20Uploads/IMAG0264.jpg) (http://s46.photobucket.com/user/tashman_/media/Mobile%20Uploads/IMAG0264.jpg.html)
(http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f101/tashman_/Mobile%20Uploads/IMAG0263.jpg) (http://s46.photobucket.com/user/tashman_/media/Mobile%20Uploads/IMAG0263.jpg.html)
If you wish to do this job it takes about 2 hours or so to remove the spring, dismantle it, sand and clean it all, grease it, rebuild it, wrap it and refit it to the car.
I got the Denso tape from Jewsons, and the Waterpump grease from Opie oils.
The spring seems to have more movement and bounce now that there is less friction from within it, and its good that it's protected from rust now. Also its good to know that the bumps in the road are now being absorbed by the leaf spring and not my backside!
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Top Job!
I have seen denso tape used on a couple of old 1950's Austin leaf springs. Should last years now ;)
More beer time, less leaf spring greasing time ;D